Ingeborg Mello: “Two Lives” in Sport

In the course of her long and successful athletic career, track and field champion Ingeborg Mello (1919–2009) was active within politically charged contexts that underscore the use of sport as a means of social exclusion or integration. Born in Berlin, she began as a promising teenage athlete on the Jewish sport scene of National Socialist Germany and finished as one of the finest Argentine athletes of all time. This paper describes Mello’s early athletic experience, the circumstances of her departure from the country of her birth and her “second life” as a sporting star in Argentina from the late 1930s until 1974. Having earned fame by reason of her courage and self-control in competition, she scored numerous international and national victories, set several records and represented Argentina at two Olympic Games. Ingeborg Mello overcame adversity to make a fascinating contribution to international sport.